Remember The Name
by Memories Faded
Summary: Sakura Haruno is not what you'd call normal. By day she is a average-looking seventeen year old high school senior who spends time volunteering at nursing homes, animal shelters and tutoring sixth graders. But by night, she's.. something else.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer; I Do Not Own Naruto

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**A/N; Hello everyone!**

**Great to be here again. (I sound like I'm on stage XD) I'd like to say 'Hello' to anyone who has reviewed _Discrepancy_ and is now checking out my next story.**

**I'm going to give a fair warning now. This story will be graphic, it deals with intense fighting scenes, drug use, language and sexual themes. There will be lemons in later chapters, but I'm going to go ahead and give a big mark of shame to anyone who only skims lightly through chapters to get to them. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! SHAME! XD**

**Lol, okay, enough messing.**

**I haven't really been working on this for very long, so I need your reviews now more then ever so I can decide whither or not to continue it.**

**This is just the Prologue, meant to give some background detail before I get into the story. Not all chapters will be written this way.**

**Read and enjoy!**

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Sakura Haruno is anything but normal.

_Up, down._

Sakura Haruno, five foot six inches, natural pink hair, healthy clear complexion and apple green eyes. Unusual color for hair. Doctors had been baffled by it, but their conclusion was relatively simple; genetics.

_Up, down._

Both Mr. _and_ Mrs Haruno had long family history for red heads and strawberry blondes. But black, blonde or brunette had been long absent. They all figured, doctors and her parents included, that Sakura's bright pink hair was just a strange, rare product of long generations of red and red-blonde pigments in their genes.

Sakura's grandparents on her father's side insisted that it was devil's work. That the child was born evil.

_Up, down._

Her parents didn't talk to them any more.

A church minister and his wife, both devote Christians, both strawberry-blondes. Disowned their son's only child because of her unusual hair color. They made the Christian community look bad. Her parents themselves rarely went to church. Sakura didn't believe.

Her only uncle on her father's side owned a weapon shop out of town. Her didn't keep much contact with them either.

As a little girl, her parents had gotten numerous requests from various talk shows and commercial offers. Every time her parents turned them down.

_Up, down._

Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka, friends and ex-neighbors of Sakura's parents, had encouraged taking up some of the offers. They themselves had gotten their own daughter Ino, who was Sakura's age, a role as one of the Juicy-Juice kids until she turned eight. And Sakura could have a possible once in a life-time opportunity in show-business. But Mrs. Haruno wasn't having any of it. She wanted her daughter to grow up as normal as possible.

Which she did. For the most part.

_Up, down._

Sakura Haruno, by day she is a normal-looking seventeen year old high school senior who spends time volunteering at nursing homes, animal shelters and tutoring sixth graders. But by night, she's..

_Up, down._

She's something else.

_Up, down._

Sakura Haruno, was aspiring to be an underground fighter of the Konoha Dojo. She had spent the last three years of her life practicing for the day when she could finally enter the cage herself and prove herself worthy.

_Up, down._

Those days were finally about to come.

And that was why Sakura Haruno was currently lifting weights after school on a Friday night, instead of out partying with Ino and the rest of her friends at Choji's house.

_Up, down._ Sakura Haruno, one hundred and twenty pounds of pure muscle, flesh and bone. Lifting more than twice her body weight; three hundred and ten pounds on her Friday night off from work as a waitress.

Instead of greeting customers with a friendly smile and different menus, she was spending her time on a weight lifting machine, pushing her body to the max like any other training day.

By now, she had a pretty decent schedule worked out; Her alarm went off at five. She was awake, dressed and ready by five-fifteen. One quick half-breakfast then a jog half a mile around the neighborhood. After her jog, a ten-minute shower, then a new outfit and another half breakfast. She drove to school, ate two smalls snacks at different times for lunch, school got out at two thirty. She usually would be home by three, unless she was driving a friend home.

After that, her real day began.

It was only on specific days that her routine changed. Monday; she was a nursing home volunteer. Tuesday; tutoring kids at the nearby middle school. Wednesday; animal shelter. Thursday, homeless shelter. Friday; waitressing at a diner about several blocks from her school. Saturday was also spent waitressing, leaving Sunday her only day off.

On top of that, Sakura had given herself a brutal work-out catalog. Every week day, she devoted _at least_ ninety minutes to doing pure, non-stop exercise. (Except for two-minute breaks between reps.) Every weekday she worked on a different area. She did only quick stretching on weekends, giving her body time to rebuild new muscle and not risk extreme exhaustion.

Home by six after volunteering or working, homework, studying, a couple quick snacks, dinner with her parents (The only full meal she had a day) and maybe some time chatting with friends, bed by nine o'clock.

Week-ends were different.

She only had Fridays off about once every month. Since the time was so rare she never bothered to actually plan what to do on those days. So she would just spend her extra time working out.

Her jogs were year-round. Even in the winter. On days where it was too snowy or the roads too icy Sakura would simply use the treadmill her mother kept in the basement so she wouldn't risk falling and causing herself injury. Her only exceptions were when she was really sick so she wouldn't put too much strain on her body.

Sakura was intelligent. She needed to keep her health and mental performance in the best possible shape for school, so she made sure that on top of a healthy diet, and good sleep schedule that she had a good work-out at least five times a week, and at least two hours for recreation or time to spend with her friends. To keep what was left of her sanity. Because what kind of sane person would throw away a flawless education, a good family and home for a life of a cage fighter?

She bathed but rarely showered on weekends, washing her hair every day wasn't good for it. Sakura was very precise when it came to her health. Too much washing, too much exercise, too little sleep and an unfit diet could cost her overall health and mean disaster in the cage. She knew that the best diet was to eat a series of light but filling snacks throughout her day. That way her body wouldn't be hungry in-between meals, and she'd have energy to burn.

Her parents never had any need to worry. Both her mother and her father trusted her and her bordering-on-compulsive habits. Neither though it possible for her to be secretly involved in underground fighting clubs behind their backs. That just wasn't Sakura.

And all the while, Sakura was counting down the days until the fighting season was back.

Both her mother and father knew she worked out, but they didn't really know why she worked out, or to the extent that she trained. Sakura told them that it was so she could keep her body in shape as well as help her mood. Because _everyone_ knew that good exercise helped your mood for the better, she had explained to them. She then got all complicated, going on about how she researched something on it for a school project, that exercise released certain chemicals in your brain which was proven to lighten your mood. She became so technical about it that her parents had had to stop her from going on and just not question her about it again, lest they want another long and tiresome lecture. Which was just what Sakura had wanted.

So the both of her parents thought nothing of it, and actually encouraged her to exercise on a weekly routine. Because surely if it helped Sakura's mood and health then it couldn't be a bad thing, right?

If only they knew _why_ she trained.

She would still technically be a rookie. And though she trained every day she needed to get as much time as possible training without pushing herself to the edge. Thus, why she wasn't at the party with the rest of her friends.

All well, there would be other parties. And the season was so close she could almost _taste it_.

Just three more weeks.

**A/N; Sakura's a health freak isn't she? Lol. XD**

**Well, tell me what you think, reviews help me update faster!**


	2. Chapter I

**I am Memories Faded, I have no social-life and I do not own Naruto.**

**Playlist;**

**Chevelle - _Letter from a Thief._**

**Breaking Benjamin_ - I Will Not Bow_**

_November_

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Bruising on Sakura's skin is already starting to darken and swell. But Sakura doesn't feel any of it, because at that moment, Sakura feels more awake then she's ever felt before in her life.

Visions of the fight she just won were being relieved in her mind.

And Sakura feels alive.

_..._

The whole area around the cage was packed with loud spectators that not only filled the stands, but also crowded the hall that led to the entrance of the building and around the cage itself.

Tonight was a full house.

People came here and paid to watch good fights. Illegal or not. Two people would enter the cage and spectators would be there expecting to see real fighting. Not that boxing crap that a person could watch on SPIKE T.V or Pay Per View. No, they came for real, professional martial arts and they paid good money to see it.

Investors, lawyers, even doctors, it was almost horrifying how many people, some of whom you were supposed to trust in real life with everything you had, were mixed in with crooked thieves, drug dealers muggers and street gang members.

Even though there were a handful of millionaires who sponsored the dojos involved. The entrance fee went to the winners and no one else. But there were other expenses that needed to be paid for.

First off, medics. Doctors had to be paid by either the people in the fight, or by the people who owned the building where the fight would take place. The arenas needed real doctors. This was a priority to everyone involved. People were often critically injured and sometimes died in those cages, which meant that they needed real doctors there _every_ time. _Real_ doctors, not medical school dropouts.

Though Sakura's mentor was the legendary Tsunade, and that alone gave her an almost guaranteed slot in Konoha, the largest and most successful of the Hidden Dojos, that still was not enough for her to be accepted.

These were truthfully only pre-fights. (Her name would not even be announce before the fight began.) These were fights that earned you reputation until you were good enough to go against a real contender. Someone from one of the highly respected 'villages' which were really nothing but highly underground, highly paid and highly illegal dojos.

The villages were few and never had very many members, because it was near impossible to get into them. Unless, of course, you were selected by or trained by one of the masters.

But that also made them more dangerous.

Even as private, polite and relativity respective as most of them were however, no one ever dared crossing them any of them.

Like a coyote stepping into wolf territory, you _did not_ fuck with village member.

The irony was though, that about eighty percent of the people in the villages were Sakura's age. Mere teenagers. Nevertheless, they were still the most feared, most respected, and most envied of every underground fighter in this chain. Period.

And even though she couldn't spot an through the crowd at that moment, she knew that there were at least two pairs of eyes from every village looking for a new recruit hidden and watching her every move. And waiting for her to screw up.

Sakura scolded herself angrily, this was no time to be uneasy.

She heard the loud ring of the bell and the slam of the cage doors opening. Felt her heart race with nervous excitement. She swallowed thickly, and balled her fists only to realize that her palms were sweating. Irritably, impatiently, she wiped her hands on her white trousers. Entered from her side, and did her best to look cool and calm.

The man on the other side was at least in his twenties, about Sakura's height, very muscled and very wide. He was shirtless, his face wore a grim frown, but his goatee was still probably the only interesting thing to look at on him.

And then, Sakura felt it. About the time when the doors slammed closed, her opponent readiedand the bell rung twice to signal that it was time to start, she felt a fleeting nervous panic fill her entire being and steal her ability to breathe.

She was nervous because this was her first fight

She was nervous, because until this point she had only be training, she was still Sakura Haruno, uninvolved with illegal stunts and underground fighting.

She was nervous, because Tsunade was not there to help her, and she didn't know a single person in this room.

So she was not prepared when a huge fist swing at her. Sakura managed to dodge out of pure reflex, but was even less prepared for the second fist that connected with her cheekbone and knocked her to the ground.

The crowd was screaming in delight at her fall.

She was up in seconds, barely avoiding the foot he had tried to land on her when she was down. Sakura bit her lip tightly, angered by his harsh but predictable dishonor.

He swept her feet out from under her, and she landed very painfully on her hip and elbow.

She rolled out of his way this time, jumped on her feet and moved away from another swing. He lashed out with her leg and caught her around the knee, stilling her for a moment and giving time for him to strike another hit on her face.

She untangled herself faster than he obviously predicted, her leg went up and hit him right in his defenseless solar plexus, knocking the wind right out of him and forcing his body to double over.

Sakura saw her opportunity, and seized it as hard as she could. She grabbed his head in her clammy hands in a vice grip, and brought his face straight into her knee, showing no more mercy than he had shown her. She brought him down at the same time as she brought her leg up, bashing him so hard that her knee actually throbbed as she pounded him once, twice, three times in the face. Then, she let go.

He fell hard onto the concrete ground when she released him. He was bleeding less then she was, but he still did not get back up.

Seconds passed, and the bell rang much to Sakura's disbelief. Cold, cold waves washed over her when it began to sink in that she had won, that in a few short minutes it was over.

At that moment, thoughts of her life, the life she wanted, and the village she strove to be accepted by fled her mind and was replace by the pounding in her heart and the roar of the crowd around her.

The crowd. There _were_ good people in the crowd outside of the cage, hidden amongst the rest. But there were mostly bad ones. And though with the heavy, blinding white lights she could not see them, she could still hear them as the shouted and hollered and uttered profanities at her for winning, because many of them had placed bets against her.

Sakura could judge them because they were evil and even though she had another dark life she was still loved and cherished by the people close to her.

Yes, bruising on Sakura's skin was already starting to darken and swell. And she still would have to convince her parents that the marks on her body was from some after-school sports that didn't exist. But Sakura didn't feel any of it, because at that moment, Sakura felt more awake then she had ever felt before in her life.

And for a few precious, precious minutes,

Sakura felt alive.

A/N; Man, this chapter sucked. -_- I might change it later, but the background info on all the rules and stuff is still really important at this point.


	3. Chapter II

**I am Memories Faded, I have been very lazy and I do apologize and I do not own Naruto.**

**Playlist;**

**Earshot – _Wait_**

**Apocalyptica – _I Don't Care_**

_November_

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"I'm fine mom."

A sigh. "I don't know Sakura. I don't think that you should be playing such violent sports. You could get seriously hurt."

"It's nothing mom, really."

"I mean look at these bruises! You're lucky that they weren't serious!"

"It was worth it." And it was worth it. "We won the game." Not too far from the truth, she _had_ won after all.

"Has your father talked to you about this yet?"

"No, he said I should talk to you about it."

Another sigh. Lips pursed tightly. Her mother would never accept her if she knew what kind of trouble Sakura was getting herself into. She was a conservative and as much as she loved her only child, it just wasn't in her to approve of what her daughter was secretly doing behind her back. Which was why Sakura needed to be extra careful to keep it a tightly kept secret.

But the woman wasn't letting up that easily. "Aren't I supposed to sign a paper or something?"

Sakura's heartbeat quickened, she hadn't thought about that.

"No, it isn't a school sport. So we never got one."

"I don't know Sakura. It sounds dangerous."

"Please mom? I'm such a valued player!" Pleading doe eyes. "And it makes me so happy."

"Is it going to interfere with your schoolwork?"

Of course, why should she be surprised, wasn't Sakura's academics _all_ this woman cared about? Didn't she realize how much it suffocated her?

"No way Mom, you know I'd never let anything get in the way of my schoolwork." Her tone was innocent and the older woman smiled at her.

"I know." She said, opening her arms to give Sakura a tight hug. "That's my girl." The warm embrace of her mother surrounded her, pressing down on sensitive, fresh bruises. She winced but smiled nonetheless.

It felt like life was finally going to where she had worked so hard to get it. Every sacrifice she made was finally paying off.

If only it could have stayed that way.

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Knuckle conditioning was as important as any part of training.

Which was part of the reason why Sakura had taken to wearing a pair of mock-leather fingerless gloves while in school. And even that didn't help the pain. It was only supposed to cover up the unsightly bruises so no one in school would become suspicious. It still hurt at the end of the day. Sakura's first fight had been on a Friday night, giving her two day to completely heal the dark marks that had been pounded onto her skin. Obviously that wasn't humanly possible. But it did give her enough time to figure out which foundations and concealers worked to hide them from other people's suspicious eyes.

If not for the judgment of others of others, Sakura wouldn't even try to hide her wounds. To her, bruises were like battle scars. Something to be proud of. Proof of her adventures, proof of her of glory.

Perfect grades on paper were just that, paper. What good would Sakura be out in the real world when all she had was booksmarts? Perfect grades in tests and homework didn't mean that she was smarter than anyone else, it just meant she had all the right answers. How did that prove that she was any different from everyone else?

You might have asked her why she didn't just join a school sport? Because any team she might have joined would never have let her shine as an individual. "There's no _'I'_ in team, Sakura." That was every coach's motto. Sakura would never get to be known as just herself. Even if she was talented enough to lead a team to some great victory, would the high school junior ever have all the spotlight to herself? Of course not. There was no way she could gain that kind of fame in a high school. Equally so there was no way a high school activity could pump her veins full of adrenaline like the feeling of fighting with only your bare fists and legs to rely on could. It was pretty simple, it's only the most dangerous things that make you feel life was worth living.

Maybe it came from some insecurity back in her childhood, maybe it was her personality.

"Sakura?"

If she wasn't in her fantasy world she was still trapped in her real world, school and homework.

"Can you read the next passage for you please?"

Sakura's teacher was giving her 'the eye.' That meant she knew Sakura hadn't been paying attention, but was choosing not to point her out to the class openly. It wasn't really the junior's fault. While most of her classmates spaced out because they _didn't_ understand Dante's _Inferno._ Sakura spaced because it was too easy for her.

She cleared her throat.

"_But turn your eyes to the valley; there we shall find_

_the river of boiling blood in which are steeped_

_all who struck down their fellow men." Oh blind!_

_Oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity_

_which spurns us so in the short mortal life_

_ans steeps us so through all eternity!_"

Sakura wondered maybe if it was not chance that was behind why she read this particular verse. Or was it only because she knew the similarities between herself and those who spent eternity rotting in the seventh level of _Canto_? The poet Dante Alighieri wrote that those who spent a lifetime of violence against his neighbor was doomed to spend eternity in the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood. Those who spilled the blood of their fellow man would spend forever wallowing in it, immersed deeper depending on each individual's level of guilt. Would something along these lines ever happen to Sakura?

The teenager sighed and raked her fingers through her hair, barely listening as the rest of the verse was read by her classmates. What did it matter if some eternal punishment was waiting for her? She was alive now wasn't she? Shouldn't she be living while she had the chance? Over time the survival rate of man drops to zero, a memorable quote from one of her favorite books, (coincidentally enough, or maybe not) "Fight Club"

Didn't all roads lead to irony?

* * *

With no homework left to do. That night after dinner Sakura spent the evening with her dad.

Or more like, she sat next to her dad on the couch as he watched wrestling matches that made Sakura's fingers twitch in excitement. So she had to tear away her eyes every now and then to look over at him to make sure he didn't notice how enrapt she was by it.

The forty year old grunted and nodded his head as the more pale, larger male on the screen finally knocked over his opponent, a Hispanic rookie, and won the last round of the fight. Finally noticing her presence, her father turned and smiled at her. "Hey sweetie." He said, putting an arm around her shoulders in parental affection and kissing her on the top of her head. His can of Budweiser still in his other hand."No homework tonight?"

"No." She replied.

"Usually you have bucketloads of it." He chuckled with light humor. The junior just shrugged.

Sakura's father was always a bit more talkative and affectionate after a beer or two. He was a good man, he made a good living and took care of his family, he didn't drink more than twelve pack of alcohol every couple of weeks. The teen had never seen him shitfaced drunk except a couple times at Christmas parties. Tonight was probably just a long day for him. She couldn't even remember the last time that he had ever raised his voice at her. Maybe the time when they had been out shopping together and her younger child self had run away. Her father ended up having to search for her for over half an hour when he found her she was reading something she found in one of the toy aisles. That was years ago. Discipline was her mother's job.

Sakura couldn't help but think sometimes that he was whipped by her mother. And that was why he spent most of his weeknights on the couch in front of the television with a beer instead of in bed with his wife. He, just like his daughter, just needed to get away from Mrs. Haruno's control every now and again. She felt herself curl into her father's warm embrace, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I hope you never do anything crazy." Mr. Haruno said, gesturing to the television, which was showing a Girls Gone Wild commercial. Frequent during this time of night on this channel. Sakura wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I would hate to see my little Princess throw her life away. For something so stupid." Then he laughed. "But that's just crazy isn't it?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but closed it as she watched as her father turned his head back to the match.

"Yeah," she muttered, mostly to herself. "That would be crazy."

Maybe she should spend more time with her dad more often. He would probably be more understanding of her nighttime activites than her mother ever would.


End file.
